“The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) will soon announce this after concluding the creation of all the Legislative Instruments (L.I.)”, he said.

President Akufo-Addo gave the hint when he paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the Lawra Traditional Area, Naa Puowelle Karbo II during his two-day tour of the Upper West Region.

“I can assure you that Lawra is among the three districts that will be elevated to the status of a Municipality’’, he told Naa Karbo.

On rural electrification, the President also announced that 106 communities in the Upper West Region would be connected to the National grid to boost economic activity in those communities.

President Akufo-Addo said the intention of his government was to achieve universal electricity coverage across Ghana by the end of the four-year mandate.

Naa Karbo II congratulated the President for the implementation of bold social interventions such as the Free SHS, which according to him had lifted the burden off parents’ shoulders.

The Paramount Chief disclosed that the Lawra Nursing Training School had been awarded a Diploma status due to its sterling performance, but the school lacked basic infrastructure which needed urgent attention from government.

He also reminded government about the construction of a bridge across the Dikpe River to boost economic activity between Lawra and their neighbours in Burkina Faso.

Mr Anthony Aba-ifaa Karbo, Member of Parliament for the Lawra Constituency and Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways said the Dikpe Bridge had been captured among other important bridges in the country that would soon be constructed by the government.

Madam Otiko Afisa Djaba, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection directed that the single school that was not benefiting from the School Feeding Programme out of the 45 schools in the Lawra District should be included for the programme to achieve universal coverage in the district.

She said the caterers for the feeding programme were solely reserved for women as a deliberate measure to empower them economically and warned the men who were putting in applications to be recruited caterers to stay away.

Madam Otiko said the programme was also intended to empower farmers by buying foodstuff from them directly and also to promote the consumption of locally produced foodstuff in the country.

She said as a result, the School Feeding programme would be renamed the ‘Ghana Home Grown School Feeding’, hinting that the new name would be launched very soon.

On the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), the Gender Minster said the vision was to transform the programme beyond giving and receiving out handouts to empowerment through skills training in order for beneficiaries to become independent.

Madam Otiko appealed to all to take advantage of the Free SHS policy and bring an end to child marriage, saying “no one now has an excuse to give your child out for marriage because you do not have money to cater for her education.